6th grade basketball

Chelsey lined up on the free throw lane for a rebound.Chelsey shoots for two.

Me coaching on the sidelines.

Me giving the girls a little lecture about how they need to hit the boards a little harder.

Taylor jumps to get the game started.

Coaching from the sidelines.

Warm ups before the game started.

Last week my 6th grade girls basketball team played in a tournament in Paris MO. We won our first game 22 to 11 but lost the second game 22 to 15. The girls did very well considering we had only had 2 practices and we only had 5 girls on the team.

I hit a deer

Oh joy. Just what I had planned for this week, hitting a deer. Can anything else go wrong? I have driven back and forth to como for how long? Over 4 1/2 years, through the bad country roads and all through deer country, when I was in my car and only had the $100 deductible. Could it have happened then if it had to happen at all? No.

I should not even been out on the road tonight but sometimes you get caught between a rock and a hard place. Sorta where I was.

I saw the two deer at the side of the road, one started to jump but darted back quickly, I slammed on my breaks but it wasn't soon enough and WHACK! Right into the right front of my van. Errrrrrrrrrr. I was so pissed to say the least. I got out in the dark and initially didn't think it was too bad. Saw that the headlight lens was broken out and the paint was cracked on the right fender. Finished up what I was doing and Chelsey and I headed back to town.

Oh well, I knew it was bad when she tried to open the door and I heard a pop to which I screamed, "don't open the door any further". As a former auto adjuster, when I saw the vehicle in the aid of a light, I knew this was not exactly minor.

Will have to have a new fender, it is creased behind the wheel. It also pushed back into the door and the fender was also up over the windshield pillar. The fender liner is pulled away from the fender too. The headlight is busted and I think it got the corner of the front bumper. The vehicle is also pulling. It's certainly fixable and I can't stand to drive a vehicle that is all banged up.

Funny thing Chelsey said after we hit the deer, "do you just hit it". I said yep, you just slam on the brakes, brace yourself and just wait for the WHACK. And whatever you do, don't swerve.

I am headed out for an estimate in the morning.

Another classic teenager / tween moment

So I have one kid on the home tower computer in the dining room and another one in his bedroom on the laptop. I am going back and forth thru the house gathering dirty clothes, starting laundry and putting the clean up.

So I ask my son, what' cha doing there? He says, talking to Chelsey. I asked, on facebook chat? He says, yep. I laugh.

I pass through the dining room and Chelsey is smiling, sort of giggling, and I say, you can't get up and go in your brother's room and talk to him. She replies, I'm not going in his room to talk to him.

But at least they are communicating. There are good things to be said about technology, but in some ways, it all needs to be used in moderation. We are losing people skills.

Letting the Propane Run Out

So I had propane put in my tank on December 28, 2009. I had the same amount put in it a month before that. I realize that from Dec. 28 on it has been colder but I never thought I would run out on the 14th day of January.

I left Thursday night to go to Monroe with my cousin to watch her daughter in the tournament. Any time I leave the house for an extended period of time I usually turn the heat down. I had left at 6 pm and didn't get back until about 10:15 pm.

I walked in the front door and thought geez, I must have really turned the heat down when I left. So I walked over to the thermostat and there it set, still on 70. I thought, oh $hit, surely I have not run out of propane already.

I walked to the kitchen and opened up the closet to the furnace room and there was silence. No furnace pilot on it or the hot water heater.

Holy cow.........what was I thinking. Well, obviously I hadn't been. I've only ran out of any gas two other times in my life. It was for my car. Once was when I was in college, that was long enough ago it hardly even counts. The second time was about 2 years ago on my way to work in Columbia. I had gotten stopped on the way to work that morning for speeding, lucked out and didn't get a ticket, but because I had gotten stopped it was putting my behind and I didn't want to be late for work so I figured up in my head the gallons in my tank, the miles per gallon I got and the miles I had driven and still had to go and thought I had enough to get me to work.

Nope, didn't quite make it. About 2 miles from work, yep, I ran out. So not only was I late, and out of gas, I had to call a co-worker to come pick up my dumb a$$ and take me to work. Then at lunch we got a gas can and went and got my car.

Well, I have in the first time in my life ran out of propane. The only thing I can say is thank goodness mother nature had let up for a few days and it wasn't the freezing sub zero temperatures we had been having and it was only me that was gonna suffer thru the night. So I piled on about 6 blankets on the couch and turned on my electric heater and pulled up close to the couch and it really wasn't too bad.

But trust me, I was on the phone first thing in the morning doing what I should have already done, order more propane. I put a little me in this time and I promise to check it more often. The next time I might not get as lucky with the weather.

A Middle Schooler Movie Party

Oh, goodness, what am I in store for. Looks like I agreed to having a mix of 6th, 7th and 8th graders, boys and girls, late this afternoon. We had to buy snacks and make snacks and clean the house.....yada, yada, yada.

"Oh, he can come." "Darn, she can't." "Well, hey, let's see if they can come."

LOL.

I just got the official invite list read to me. Still waiting on some RSVP's.

Guess I'll spend the night locked up in my bedroom while they watch movies. Gotta be a scary one I'm told. I have a small house, so whatever is going on, I'm gonna know.

Oh, I can't hardly wait......I am sooooooooooo excited!!!!!!!!!! LOL.

Children of Today

So it was Tuesday night, and I was in my room and Chase in his and I get a text message, "Mom, come in my room, I want to show you something." Well, beings that he so not often asks me stuff like that, I crossed the living room to his room and there he lay on the bed with his laptop with youtube pulled up and he had to show me a video. So I layed there with him and watched it and we talked about it. We parted ways...........well, I left his room and went back to doing what it was that I had been doing.

About 20 minutes have passed now by this time, I get another text, "Mom, will you come in my room and shut my TV off." My response could have been sooooo not the right one, but I once again crossed the living room, entered his room and laughed as he lay curled up under the covers and teased him that he just didn't to get out from under them to turn it off. He grinned. And I shut the tv off.

Take the time to do the little things..........they matter. :)

Burr, It's Cold

Well, if you live here in good 'ole Missouri, you know just what I am talking about. I have had more than one layer on all weekend. I've slept in thermal underwear plus sweats and ran around the house in muliple layers and covered up on the couch with blankets. I refuse to turn the thermostat up past 70 degrees. I don't think there is anything more miserable than being cold.....well, maybe having to go pee and you've had to hold it for the last hour, lol.

I picked up Chase yesterday morning at 7 a.m. for basketball practice and he came out of the house in shorts and a short sleeve shirt. I thought he was nuts and told him so. Of course he said he had overslept andn didn't have time to get his coat and pants. In this kind of weather, you always have time to find a coat, cause you never know what kind of car trouble you may run into.

Jan. 1, 2010

Setting here alone, freezing my a$$ off on a Friday night. Wow, guess it can only go up from here.

I've facebooked all I can stand, I've searched everything I can think of that I am curious about, to broke to on-line shop and not tired enough to go to sleep to forget all that's bothering me. Wow, that list is long, so it's really going to take a long sleep to be able to get away from it. But since I'm wide awake I guess I have to deal with it anyway. The lump is getting harder in my throat and the tears are forming, glad there's nobody here to see it. Well, actually that is not true, because if there was anybody around maybe I wouldn't feel like I do.

What to do? What to do? I want to scream, but what good will that do. Will only give me a headache and fortunately I have been able to avoid those over the past 2 months. Cry, well that isn't going to change anything and in the end, just give me a headache too, so still want to avoid the headaches. Phone a friend....well, I've done that already and they have a life outside of listening to me. I've tried to watch TV and TV just stinks tonight.

One of my friends would say pray about it.